What if Something Wicked
by Katy M VT
Summary: What if the shtriga recognized Sam? Chapter 5 of 5 up
1. Sick Kids

Something Wicked-What if Dr. Hydecker recognized Sam?

Sam walked into the hotel room after having gone on a food run.

"Sam, dad sent us some coordinates. They point to Fitchburg, Wisconsin. I've done some researching and it looks like a bunch of kids have gotten sick lately," Dean said.

"Sick how?" Sam asked as he handed Dean his burger and put dressing on his salad.

"Pneumonia," Dean answered.

"That's too bad, but how is that our kind of thing?" Sam asked.

"I'm not sure, but dad wouldn't have given us the coordinates if it wasn't," Dean reasoned.

"Well, kind of lucky that we're only a couple of hours away from there. How do you want to handle it?"

"You can go talk to the doctor in charge of these cases and I'll go see what I can find out from the parents," Dean suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Sam agreed.

They grabbed the rest of their food and headed for the Impala.

SSSSSSS

When they reached Fitchburg, Dean dropped Sam off at the hospital and headed for the house of the latest child to get sick. When he got there, he rang the doorbell and waited.

"Yes?" a woman asked when she opened the door.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Howser, with the CDC. I'm investigating the recent outbreak of pneumonia. Pneumonia isn't something that usually turns into an epidemic, so we want to see if maybe there's something in the houses, or schools that are causing it."

"Whatever we can do to help," the woman said.

"Do you mind if I look at your daughter's room or rooms?" Dean asked.

"Sure, right this way," the woman led him up the stairs. "They share a room," she explained on the way up. "Amber got sick two nights ago and Bethany got sick last night," she said as she entered the room with Dean following her.

"Now was the window open or anything?" Dean asked.

"Yes, we did find the window open on both mornings. It's weird because last night, I made sure it was closed."

"Do you think your daughter opened it?" Dean asked.

"I don't know who else could have."

Dean walked over to the window and opened it. On the outside window sill, he saw a rotted track that he recognized from when he was a kid. He now knew what was making these kids sick and it wasn't your run-of-the-mill pneumonia.

SSSSSSSSS

Sam walked into the hospital and asked to speak to the doctor in charge of the pneumonia cases.

"That would be Dr. Hydecker," the pretty nurse told him. "You can find him in Pediatrics on the second floor."

"Thanks," Sam said, thinking that if Dean were here, he would be so busy flirting with her that he'd have forgotten all about the kids.

"Dr. Hydecker?" Sam approached the first doctor he came to in Pediatrics.

"Yes, that's right," the doctor said. He couldn't believe it. This guy had no idea that they had met once before.

"My name is Dr. Kaplan with the CDC. We heard about the outbreak of pneumonia and wanted to investigate the cases," Sam said. He thought the doctor was looking at him strangely, but decided it was probably just his imagination.

"There were other cases like this a few years back. Would you like to see those files?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Sam said.

"OK, follow me. They're in here," Dr. Hydecker said leading Sam into an unoccupied patient room.

Sam looked around and saw a bed, table and chairs and not much else. "I don't understand," he began when the doctor turned around. His face had changed into this horrific, gray, wrinkly thing, that didn't even look human. Before Sam had a chance to react, he was thrown onto the floor and his mouth forced open. He tried to scream, but no sound came out.

"I started to feed off you once before, you know. I was interrupted, but I never forgot you. You're the only meal I never finished." And with that the "doctor" started sucking Sam's energy from him. Two minutes later, he was finished and transformed himself back to his human form. He stood up, peeked out the door to make sure nobody was in the hallway and exited the room, leaving Sam on the floor unconscious.


	2. Sick Sam

Dean headed over to the hospital. He remembered that weekend when he found those pictures his dad had taken of rotted footprints.

Flashback

"Dean, I'll be back in two days. Don't leave this room," Dad had ordered before he left.

But sure enough I had to get bored, Dean thought angrily. He was so mad at himself. He had left the room to play video games of all things. Video games! Yeah, that was important. When he had come back to the room, there was a monster leaning over Sammy's bed--over Sammy--and Dean had frozen, not knowing what to do. His dad had trained him for a lot of things, but all his training went out of his head when he saw Sammy in danger. Luckily his father happened to get back like 10 seconds later and scared the thing off. But he had been so mad at Dean, he hadn't spoken to him for a week. And he didn't even leave to go hunting because he didn't trust Dean to leave Sammy alone with him.

SSSSSSSSS

Dean pulled up to the hospital. "It's a shtriga, just have to find it feeding and kill it," he said to himself. He remembered his father telling him the only time it was vulnerable was when it was feeding. And he found out from the victims' parents that it seems to be going after siblings. One night it would feed off the one sibling and the next night the other one.

He walked into the hospital and started asking around for Dr. Kaplan.

"Dr. Kaplan? Yes, I spoke with him earlier and sent him down to Records. I haven't seen him since," Dr. Hydecker told Dean.

"Could you point me in that same direction?" Dean asked.

"Sure," Dr. Hydecker said and directed him to the Records room.

When Dean arrived in the Records room, he found it empty except for the librarian. "Hi, have you seen Dr. Kaplan?" Dean asked.

"Who?" she asked.

"Dr. Hydecker told me he sent Dr. Kaplan down here. We're with the CDC, looking into the pneumonia cases," Dean explained.

"Oh, yes. Those are horrible. But, I'm afraid nobody has been down here today," she said.

"That's odd. Well, thanks anyway," Dean said puzzled.

He went back upstairs and found Dr. Hydecker again. "He hasn't been down to Records."

"That's odd. I sent him down there about two hours ago."

A nurse approached them. "Excuse me, Doctor. This isn't really one of your cases, because it's an adult, but we have another pneumonia victim and thought maybe we should treat all the cases together."

"Yes, that's probably best. What happened?" Dr. Hydecker asked, knowing full well what he was going to hear.

"Well, we were going to prep an empty patient room for the next patient, and when we walked in, there was an unconscious man on the floor. His breath was raspy and he has all the same symptoms as the children. They're bringing him up now."

Dean had been following this conversation and turned to look when Sam was brought up on a gurney. "Sam," he said as he ran over to him.

"Are you family?" the nurse asked him.

"Uh, no, we're colleagues," he said. He wished that they hadn't already given cover stories. It was going to make this more complicated.

"Do you know if he has any family?"

"No, his parents died when he was a kid and he was an only child," Dean said. "Can I sit with him for a while?"

"I suppose that would be OK," the nurse answered.

Dr. Hydecker and the nurse left the room to order tests and Dean sat next to Sam's bed. "Sam?" he said. "Sam, please wake up." He got no response. "I know what this thing is, and I can kill it, but I have to find it first. But don't worry. I'm going to find it."

The nurse came back in. "You'll have to leave sir. We need to run some tests."

Dean just nodded and left.

SSSSSSSSSS

The shtriga got ready for his next meal. He thought maybe he should leave but he had picked out his next two meals. He would leave after that.


	3. Big Brothers

Dean walked into the motel office and asked for a room. In the background he saw two boys who remind him of himself and Sam when they were younger. He sighed.

"Are you alright?" the woman asked him.

"Yes, I've just had a long day. I'm a doctor with the CDC and am here working on the recent rash of pneumonia cases."

"I've heard about that. Do you have any idea what's going on?" She looked back at her sons and Dean realized that probably all the parents in town were scared.

"Not yet," Dean said, "but believe me, I will find out and put an end to it."

SSSSSSSSSSS

After a full night of not sleeping, Dean got up and went outside to get some coffee. He saw the older of the two boys sitting on a bench looking dejected.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked.

"My brother's sick," he responded.

"The little guy?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, it's pneumonia," the kid answered. Dean froze.

"Where's your mom?" Dean asked.

"She's at the hospital with Asher," came the reply.

"What's your name?" Dean asked.

"Michael."

"My name's Dean and I need your help." Dean said.

"Help with what?" Michael asked.

"I know what's wrong with your brother."

"Yeah, pneumonia, I just told you," Michael said, rolling his eyes.

"It's not pneumonia. Something attacked your brother. I know what it looks like because once it attacked my brother. Well, twice actually. I can kill it. It's what I do."

"You're crazy," Michael said.

"Am I?" Dean asked. He saw something in Michael's eyes that told him that he knew something.

Michael hesitated. "This thing, is it a creepy guy in a long robe?"

"Yeah, so you did see it?" Dean asked, hopefully. If he saw it, he would be more likely to believe him and help him.

"I thought I was dreaming. This is all my fault," Michael said.

"No, this is not your fault," Dean said, forcefully.

"It's my job to protect him," Michael said.

Dean nodded. He knew the feeling. "Will you help me?"

"What do I have to do?" Michael asked.

SSSSSSSSSSSS

Michael was laying on his bed as Dean was setting up a camera, so he could observe from the next room. "If you kill it, will Asher get better?"

Dean pondered the question. "Honestly, I don't know. But, I hope so. The one thing I do know is that if I kill it, it can't hurt any more kids."

Michael nodded. Dean went into the next room to watch. About two hours later, Dean saw a figure on the monitor. He was jumping to run in there but knew he had to wait. The shtriga was only vulnerable while feeding. He watched as the figure approached Michael. Michael was sitting on the bed watching the figure wide-eyed. Dean had to restrain himself from running in.

Finally, the figure was bent over Michael and a glowing light appeared to be going from Michael's mouth into the Shtriga's. He jumped up, and grabbed his gun loaded with consecrated iron rounds. "Hey!" he yelled. The shtriga turned to look at him and Dean fired 6 shots into its head. The shtriga fell to the floor and wisps of light floated out of its mouth and out of the room.

"Is it dead?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Dean said. He walked up to it and kicked it. No response. Good sign.

"OK, Michael, I need to take this outside and salt and burn it. Then, I'll go to the hospital to check on Sam and Ahser," Dean said.

"No, please don't leave," Michael begged. He was scared and didn't want to be left alone.

Dean sighed. He couldn't really blame the kid. He was eleven years old and just found out that monsters were real. Plus he was scared for his sick little brother. Dean could relate to that very well. "OK, but I have to take this out into the woods and burn it. You can come with me if you want."

"Thanks," Michael said, relieved that he wasn't being left alone.

SSSSSSSS

An hour later they were back. Michael had waited in the car, while Dean had gone into the woods, but made him promise to be back in ten minutes. Protecting Michael was reminding Dean of protecting Sam. "You should get some sleep," Dean said to Michael.

"Promise you won't leave?" Michael asked.

"I promise. In the morning, we'll call your mom and make sure it's OK for me to bring you to the hospital."

Michael nodded and climbed into bed. Dean sat in a chair near his bed and watched him sleep and soon drifted off himself.


	4. Visiting Hours

The next morning Dean woke up and tried to get up quietly without waking Michael.

"Where are you going?" he heard coming from the bed.

He turned around. "Hey, I'm going to go grab a shower and then we'll call your mom and the hospital and see if it's OK if I bring you over."

"OK," Michael said.

Dean headed back to his room and took a quick shower. When he was dressed and coming back out to check on Michael, he saw Michael's mother pulling into the parking lot.

"Joanna, how's Asher?" Dean asked.

Ignoring his question, she asked, "Have you seen Michael?"

As if on cue, Michael ran out of the office and approaching them said, "How's Ash?"

"He's going to be fine. They're going to keep him another day for observation, but he's awake and doing much better. We can go see him if you want."

"Yeah," Michael yelled and ran to their car.

"I'd better hurry before he hotwires it and drives himself," Joanna said to Dean.

"Wait," Dean said and Joanna turned back to him. "What about the rest of them?"

"The kids that fell sick in the last couple of days are all awake. The ones that were affected earlier are still in unconscious but Dr. Young says they're showing improvement," Joanna answered.

The last couple of days. That's Sam, Dean thought relieved. Wait a minute. "Who's Dr. Young. Where's Dr. Hydecker?"

"I don't know. He wasn't there. Must be sick or something," Joanna answered and went over, got in her car with Michael and drove off.

Dean quickly jumped in the Impala and sped off after them. He couldn't wait to see Sam. He was so relieved that he was OK. He wondered what happened to Dr. Hydecker, though. Oh, well, I guess doctors get sick, too, once in a while, he thought.

SSSSSSSS

When Dean arrived at the hospital, he went immediately to Sam's bed. A nurse was checking his I.V.

"How is he?" Dean asked.

"Still unconscious," the nurse said.

"Wait, I thought all of the people who fell ill in the last couple of days had woken up?" Dean asked, confused.

"All of the children," the nurse clarified. "We think that maybe because Dr. Kaplan is older than the children, it may take him longer to recover."

"But he is showing signs of improvement like the kids who got sick earlier, right?" Dean asked.

The nurse hesitated.

"Right?" Dean asked more insistently.

"Actually, there's been no change," the nurse answered. "I'm sorry," she added as she walked out the door.

Dean sat down and picked up Sam's hand. "Sammy, you have to wake up. Do you hear me? You have to wake up."

Predictably there was no response, and Dean just continued to sit with him for the next several hours. Finally a nurse came in. "Doctor, visiting hours are over. You'll have to leave. You can come back tomorrow."

Dean nodded, stood up, took one last look at Sam and headed back to the motel.


	5. Recovery

The next day, Dean was back in Sam's hospital room bright and early.

"Any change?" he asked the nurse.

"No, sorry. Most of the other children have woken up, though."

"That's good," Dean said. He would have been more gladdened by that news if Sam was also waking up. The nurse left them alone.

"Sam, please wake up. I'm begging you. I can't do this on my own."

Again there was no response. Again, Dean sat there all day until a nurse kicked him out.

SSSSSSSS

The next day, Dean was back again first thing.

"Good news," the nurse greeted him, "Dr. Kaplan is showing signs of improvement. He should be waking up tomorrow."

Dean sighed a breath of relief, and walked into Sam's room.

"Hey, Sammy, I hear you're waking up tomorrow. You'd better not make that nice nurse a liar."

He sat in silence for a while and then said, "Sammy, I'm sorry. This is all my fault."

He decided to leave and come back tomorrow. He couldn't take the silent treatment anymore.

SSSSSSSS

"Is he awake," Dean asked immediately as he entered the hospital.

"Yes," the nurse greeted him with a big smile. Dean returned it enthusiastically and walked into Sam's room.

"Hey," Sam said, weakly.

"Hey," Dean said, sitting down.

"It's the doctor," Sam whispered.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Dr. Hydecker, he's the one making people sick," Sam whispered, looking around him.

"You're kidding me," Dean said, truly shocked. He had never considered that. He didn't know that shtrigas took on human form. He thought they always looked like that terrible thing he killed the other night.

"Do you know what he is, how to kill him?" Sam whispered.

Dean realized Sam didn't know it was over. "It's OK Sammy, it's all taken care of," Dean reassured him.

"Then how did you not know it was him?" Sam asked, suspiciously.

"Because he didn't look like that when I killed him. He looked all gray and..," Dean paused trying to come up with a good descriptive word.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Sam said, "that's what he looked like when he fed off of me."

Dean shivered to hear of something "feeding" off of Sam.

"I'm confused about something, though," Sam said.

"What's that?" Dean asked.

"He said that we'd met before, that I was the only meal he had never finished. What did he mean by that?" Sam asked.

"You don't remember?" Dean asked.

"Remember what?"

"When you were about six years old, he attacked you and tried to feed off of you. Dad came in and scared him off, but wasn't able to kill him," Dean said. "That's why dad sent us here. So, I could make up for my mistake."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"When you were attacked all those years ago it was my fault. I was supposed to stay in the hotel room with you, but I left to play video games. I'm sorry."

"Dean, you were just a kid," Sam pointed out.

"No, dad gave me an order and I didn't listen and I almost got you killed. And then you were almost killed again," Dean lamented.

"This time definitely wasn't your fault," Sam said.

"No? I left you alone again," Dean argued.

"Dean, be reasonable. I'm an adult, not a little kid."

"Doesn't matter. It's my job to keep you safe."

"You can't protect me forever," Sam said.

"Wanna bet?" Dean countered.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Jerk."

"Bitch."

The End.


End file.
